JP-7857180-B2 - Color evaluation device and color evaluation method

JP7857180B2JP 7857180 B2JP7857180 B2JP 7857180B2JP-7857180-B2

Inventors

中村圭介

Assignees

シャープ株式会社

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20220715

Claims (9)

An imaging unit that captures an image of the object to be measured and acquires image data, A reference color setting unit that records setting information for multiple reference colors, An evaluation reference color designation unit that designates multiple reference colors that are different from each other from among the multiple reference colors based on the color information contained in the image data, A similar color region extraction unit extracts a plurality of similar color regions whose colors are similar for each of the evaluation reference colors included in the measurement target of the image data, A ratio calculation unit that calculates the ratio of each approximate color region to the measurement target, An evaluation value calculation unit calculates an evaluation value for evaluating the color of the object to be measured based on the ratio of each approximate color region, An evaluation value interval setting unit stores evaluation value interval setting information that divides the numerical range of the evaluation value calculated by the evaluation value calculation unit into a plurality of evaluation value intervals that correspond one-to-one with each of the plurality of reference colors, Equipped with , The evaluation value calculation unit calculates the evaluation value based on the ratio for each approximate color region and the evaluation value interval setting information stored in the evaluation value interval setting unit, and is a color evaluation device.
The color evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation reference color designation unit designates one of the plurality of evaluation reference colors as the evaluation reference color that maximizes the area in which the color approximates the reference color included in the measurement target of the image data.
The approximate color region extraction unit calculates a plurality of approximate pixel counts, which are the number of pixels whose colors are similar for each of the evaluation reference colors included in the measurement target of the image data. The color evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation value calculation unit calculates the evaluation value based on the ratio of each approximate number of pixels to the total number of pixels of the image data to be measured.
The system further includes an approximate color range setting unit that records setting information for the approximate color range for each of the aforementioned reference colors. The color evaluation apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the approximate color region extraction unit extracts regions included in the approximate color range for each evaluation reference color included in the measurement target of the image data as a plurality of approximate color regions.
The color evaluation device according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation value calculation unit calculates the evaluation value using a plurality of linear functions whose variables are the ratio for each approximate color region.
The color evaluation device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the evaluation value interval setting information includes information of an evaluation function that calculates the evaluation value using the ratio of the approximate color area set for each evaluation value interval as a variable.
The color evaluation apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising a device control unit that performs feedback control of at least one of the processing temperature of a heating device for heating the object to be measured, the processing time of the heating device, and the transport speed of the heating device based on the evaluation value calculated by the evaluation value calculation unit.
The object of measurement is food, A color evaluation apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, which evaluates the color of the food during the heating process based on the evaluation value calculated by the evaluation value calculation unit.
The imaging step involves capturing an image of the object to be measured and acquiring image data, A reference color setting step that records setting information for multiple reference colors, A step of specifying evaluation reference colors, in which, based on the color information contained in the image data, multiple reference colors that are different from each other are designated as multiple evaluation reference colors from among the multiple reference colors, A step of extracting approximate color regions in which the colors are similar for each of the evaluation reference colors included in the measurement target of the image data, A ratio calculation step of calculating the ratio of each approximate color region to the measurement target, An evaluation value calculation step, which calculates an evaluation value for evaluating the color of the object to be measured based on the ratio of each approximate color region, A value interval setting step that stores evaluation value interval setting information which divides the numerical range of the evaluation value into a plurality of evaluation value intervals that correspond one-to-one with each of the plurality of reference colors, Includes, A color evaluation method comprising the step of calculating the evaluation value, which calculates the evaluation value based on the ratio for each approximate color region and the evaluation value interval setting information .

Description

This disclosure relates to a color evaluation device that measures and evaluates the color of manufactured goods using a color camera, and more particularly to a color evaluation device that quantifies the state of foods and other items whose surface color changes depending on the degree of heating. Patent Document 1 describes a food inspection device 11 that converts the RGB color information of image data of a good bento box 2 captured by a color camera 4 into HSL information, extracts color information from the converted HSL information, measures the area of the ingredients from the extracted color information, and determines whether ingredients are missing from the measured area. Note that RGB refers to the three primary colors: Red, Green, and Blue, and HSL refers to the three components: Hue, Saturation, and Lightness. Japanese Patent Publication No. 2014-145639 This is a block diagram showing the configuration of a color measuring device 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.This is a schematic diagram illustrating the actual equipment configuration of the color measuring device 100.This figure shows a preferred example of the correspondence between the change in the area ratio of two reference colors and the evaluation value when the evaluation value is calculated using two reference colors.This figure shows an undesirable example of the correspondence between the change in the area ratio of two colors and the evaluation value when inappropriate reference colors are selected when calculating the evaluation value using two reference colors.This figure shows a preferred example of the correspondence between the change in the area ratio of three reference colors and the evaluation value when the evaluation value is calculated using three reference colors.This figure shows an undesirable example of the relationship between the change in the area ratio of the three reference colors and the evaluation value when inappropriate reference colors are selected when calculating the evaluation value using three reference colors.This diagram shows an example of calculating an evaluation value from two reference colors.This is a schematic diagram illustrating the heating time and color change of snack foods in six stages.Figure 8 is a schematic diagram showing the three reference colors of the snack food exemplified and the area of the color extracted by each reference color.This figure compares the area extracted from each of the snack foods exemplified in Figure 8.This is an explanatory diagram illustrating a method for calculating a linear evaluation value from the area ratio of each extracted color.This is an explanatory diagram of the evaluation score values calculated using the method illustrated in Figure 11.This is a block diagram showing the configuration of a color measuring device 100A according to a second embodiment of the present invention.This is a schematic diagram illustrating the actual equipment configuration of the color measurement device 100A.This is a block diagram showing the configuration of a color measuring device 100B according to a third embodiment of the present invention.This is a block diagram showing the configuration of the color measuring device 100C according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.This figure illustrates RGB and HLS measurements for snack foods with six different heating times. <First Embodiment> 1.1 Configuration of the Color Measurement Device 100 Figure 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the color measurement device 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Figure 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating the actual equipment configuration of this color measurement device 100. As shown in Figure 1, the color measurement device 100 comprises an imaging unit 101, an image buffer unit 102, a measurement position identification unit 103, a reference color setting unit 104, an evaluation reference color specification unit 105, an approximate color area extraction unit 106, a ratio calculation unit 107, an evaluation value interval setting unit 108, an evaluation value calculation unit 109, and an evaluation value output unit 110. The actual configuration of the color measurement device 100, as shown in Figure 2, includes an imaging unit 101 and a PC (Personal Computer) 120. The imaging unit 101 is positioned in a location suitable for imaging the object T to be measured. The imaging unit 101 is, for example, a camera, more specifically, a color camera capable of capturing color images. It is applicable to both area sensor cameras and line sensor cameras, and can be combined with various lenses, filters, and even lighting devices depending on the object being photographed. The elements of the color measurement device 100, other than the imaging unit 101, are usually implemented within a computer system, and in this color measurement device 100, they are configured as software within the PC 120. Th